SPRING wsletter 2000

STERLING MEMORIAL LIBRARY ROOM 33IC YALE UNIVERSITY NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT

Begnning the Second Phase

By 2001 we will have entered the second phase of the Video Archive's mission. During the first phase we established the protocols and stan- dards for videotaping and cataloging Holocaust testimonies, and we conducted a program of systematic recording, first in North America, then in Israel, Western Europe, and South America. Modest taping projects in Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus fol- lowed. We also found videotaping partners in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The number of witnesses recorded by Yale and its affiliate projects totals more than 4,000. We will continue to welcome witnesses to our studio at Yale. During these years we accomplished many other tasks. We pioneered the on-line cataloging of the testimonies. Anyone wish to encourage questions concerning public education and interested in our collection can search the databases from any the role new media should play. place in the world to locate testimonies relevant to their inter- The Archivist's column describes the many and vasied ests. On-line summaries assist in deciding which testimonies research projects of visitors who view testimonies at Yale. This should be viewed at Yale. guidance and reference work is steadily increasing, as is the Copies of the video testimonies are available in local reposi- number of publications that rely on our collection. tories in areas where we have worked with affiliate projects. We have already taken the important step of producing a Among these are the French National Archives in Paris, the documentary based on our tapes. On May st, at 10 PM EST, Wannsee House Museum in Berlin, the National Sound many PBS affiliate stations will broadcast Witness: Voicesfrom the Archives in London, the University of Haifa, and the Baltimore Holocatrst (see back cover). A book of the same title, containing Hebrew University. additional testimony excerpts and essays, has been published by We have sponsored conferences (see p.3), helped found an the Free Press. internationaljournal, Studies otz the Audio- Visual Testimrly cf !fc- We will continue to record the testimonies of special or tims ofthe Nazi Crimes and Getzocides, created short programs for under-represented groups. The Milan Sime~kaFoundation in classroon~use, and provided reference information to scholars, Bratislava has asked us to partner an ongoing project recording teachers and students, as well as organizational advice and inter- Roma survivors. Moreover, in pursuit of our pedagopcal mis- viewer-training to the more than thirty affiliate projects. sion, we plan to interview important researchers and teachers in Our mission in the second phase extends this work but adds Holocaust studies, both here and abroad. We cannot ourselves several new and crucial features. We must con~pletethe on-line train much-needed teachers, but we can produce a number of cataloging of approximately I ,500 interviews. Many of these inspiring video progsams in wlch members of this pioneering are not in English and therefore require extra attention. generation discuss their work. Five years ago we conducted a preservation assessment of The task still before us includes assuring the financial stability the collection, realizing that many of the video recordings were of the Fortunoff Video Archive by adding Sz million to its approaching twenty years of age. After consultation with the endowment. We hope to achieve this aim by our twentieth foremost experts in the field, we embarked on a preservation anniversary-which coincides with Yale's Tercentenary. I am project with hnds raised by Alan Fortunoff and Joshua Greene. happy to announce major gifts to the endowment from the We have completed preservation procedures and transferred to Jacob and Hilda Blaustein Foundation and Darrell Ross. a more current format all the tapes recorded at Yale between We hope you will stay in touch with us. We are always 1979 and 1990. This essential-and expensive-work will con- ready to talk with those who wish to have additional informa- tinue. Last year our holdings were placed in a new state-of-the- tion, utilize our facilities, or support our mission in any other art storage facility which will appreciably increase their life way. span. Our mission in the second phase, while including cata- Geoffrey Hartman loging and preservation, will emphasize the pedagogical use of Stcrlitzg Prgessor Emetitzrs, Etlglisll aid Cortzparrztive Literatirre the testimonies and issues linked to their dissemination. We Project Director atid Fctcidty Advisor Activities

Afiliate Projects

Belgium- Fondatiofz Ai~scJwitzhas published three volumes of an international journal entitled i'tuda snr le tiinoignagr ai&wi- stiel des victims des crinies etginocides mxis. The only one in this field, the new periodical provides an important forum for the exchange of ideas and information. Fotzdation Az~scZzwitxcontinues to videotape witness testi- mony and send copies to Yale. They have recorded the accounts of over one hundred survivors and witnesses. The second and third International Audio-Visual Meetings on Testimony of Survivors of the Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camps were held in Brussels sponsored by the Fo~zdatiott,in partnership with Fondatiorz pow la Minzoire de la Diportation (France) in May rgg6 and in June 1998. Conference participants came from the United States, Israel, Brazil, France, Peter Salner, Martin Btitora and Ingrid Antalovn ofthe Milan Belgium, Gernxmy, England, Italy, Greece, and Canada. Many Sirnetka Foundation pvoject put.selzt a copy ofher testimony to a rur- are associated with projects we initiated. Both sets of confer- ence papers were published by Fotidatioiz At~schvit~,the second vivor in Bratislava in No. 3 of the Inter~lationalJournal. Slovakia-The Milan Simecka Foundation in Bratislava has Czech Republic-In cooperation with Nadace Film 6. Sociolo- recorded I 10 survivor and witness accounts in Bratislava, gie, nineteen witness accounts were recorded in Prague with KoSice, and other cities in Slovakia. A volume entitled Prex'ili assistance horn the Czech Independent Television Company, Holokaust by Peter Salner was published in Bratislava by Veda Ltd. These include accounts of Ronla suivivors. Vydavatel 'stvo Slovenskej Akadktnie Vied. Based on the testi- monies recorded by the joint project, the book contains a brief Germany-Our joint project with the Moses Mendelssohn history of the Jewish con~munityin Slovakia, the experiences Center for European-Jewish Studies at the University of Pots- of those in the independent republic established by Nazi Ger- dam has been completed. Seventy-seven witness testimonies many, and conditions in the camps. The author uses the testi- were recorded. Copies of the testimonies are both at Yale and monies to address the questions of how "these traumatic the Wannsee House Museum in Berlin. Two volumes based on experiences have often been passed on to the consciousness of the work of this project have been published by Verlag &r the post-war generation." He concludes that "Slovak society as Berlin-Brandenburg under the title Archi11 der Erin~zcnirzg:Itzter- a whole perceives this phenomenon as a closed chapter of its views ierit c%erlebertderz der Slmuh. Volunle I, edited by Cathy history" and "it seems very likely that different understanding Gelbin, Eva Lezzi, Geoffrey Hartman, and Julius H. Schoeps, of the past tragic events may become a source of conflicting VilJeograplli~rt~Leber~sclziiltlrrtlyen iid ihre If~teqwetationel~,is a col- relations between the Jewish community and the majority lection of essays disc~~ssingthe testimonies and related topics. population in Slovakia." Ingrid Antalova, the project coordina- Volume 11, edited by Sonja Miltenberger, K(~~nimztierterKuta- tor, is presently recording testimonies of Koma survivors, and lop, is an annotated catalog. we plan to assist with the continuation of this effort. Martin Butora, our former project coordinator and Director of the Israel-We continue to work with the United States Holo- Milan Simetka Foundation is now the Slovak Ambassador to caust Memorial Museum (US H MM) to videotape Israeli sur- the United States. vivors. Nathan Beyrak has been coordinating our project in Israel for over fifieen years, first at Beth Hatefusoth and Mas- University of Michigan, Dearborn- On Listening to Holo- suah, and more recently llth the USHMM. Almost 500 witness caust Stirvivors: Recowting and Lije History by Henry Greenspan, accounts have been recorded with a focus on less documented one of the principals of the Dearborn project, was published in experiences. 1998 (Praeger: Westport, CT). Professor Greenspan's observa- tions and analyses are an important contribution to the litera- New York-Our partnership with the Museum ofJewish ture on the genre of Holocaust testimonies. A volume edited Heritage-A Living Memorial to the Holocaust produced by Professor Greenspan and Professor Sidney Bolkosky, the alnlost 600 testimonies with the assistance of Selfhelp Conlrnu- coordinator of this videotaping project for over fifteen years, nity Services. The Museum opened in 1997. Testimony tentatively called Holocaust Suwivors and their Listeners: Testi- excerpts are integated in the exhibit area dealing with the monies, Itztewiews, Emounters will be published by New York Holocaust. The efictiveness of the witness accounts is evident University Press in the United States and by Macrnillan in the when observing M~lseumvisitors who are clearly engaged and United Kingdom. The volume includes essays by principals of moved by them. the Fortunoff Video Archive. Holocaust Educa tion/Prejudice Reduction Program conference. The Video Archive also mounted an exhibit at Chaired by Marvin and Murray Lender and Geoffrey Hartman, Sterling Memorial Libraly in conjunction with the conference this program serves as a resource to fourteen school systems in that included materials from the rich holdings of many Yale the greater New Haven area. In 1999 an Advisory Council, Library collections. chaired by Professor Gordon Geballe and Barbara Segaloff, was Professors Robert Burt and Harold Honglu Koh were the formed with the goal of expanding the number of teachers and Law School organizers. Major funding for the conference was students served by the program. Since 1988 several hundred received from the Charles H. Revson Foundation, Alan M. greater New Haven area teachers from public and private schools Fortunoff, the Orville H. Schell, Jr. Center for International have participated in local workshops and lecture series, five day Human Rights, and the Kempt Fund. courses at Facing History and Ourselves, and a three week summer program in Eastern Europe and Israel led by Vladka Other Scholarly Activities Meed and sponsored by the Jewish Labor Committee. Programs Many researchers delivered papers at conferences based on their attended by several thousand students have included school visits work at the Video Archive. Principals of the Video Archive pre- by authors, survivors, and performers. ACES (Area Cooperative sented papers at the Social Science History Association, the Uni- Educational Services) promotes the progmm through its network versity of hme~p,Colgate, Cornell, Notre Dame, New York and has served as a host for many events. Teacher visits to the University, Emory, the Tauber Institute, Brandeis, Boston Uni- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum were organized in versity, Haifa University, University of Chxago, University of 1997, 1998, and 1999. These included pre-trip orientations and Utah, Georgetown, Ben Gurion University, Wissenschaftskolleg sessions with Museum staff and scholars in Washington. (Berlin), the Einstein Forum (Berlin), the International Study Group for Trauma, Violence, and Genocide (Cologne, Ger- many), the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Gallaudet University, UC Berkeley, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Association for Moving Image Archivists, and the Max Planck Institute for History (Gottingen, Germany). Dr. Don Laub is presently the acting Director of Yale's cent& for International and Area Studies Genocide Program. Interlibraly loans of testinlonies have been made to Emory, San Francisco State, UC Santa Cmz, St. Cloud, and Dartmouth to support undergraduate courses in whch the study of testi- monies is essential.

Searching for Memory andJtrstice: The Holocailst and Apartheid Ptr bliccrtions Our website (www.library.yale.edu/testimonies)has won several Confeereme, Febrttary 1998 awards and continues to evolve as we update it. We recently added Cot@rences a section entitled "New in 2000" with details on Wittiess: Voices The Video Archive's Fifteenth Anniversary conference took from the Holocazrst, the documentary and the Free Press book. place February 8-10, 1998. Entitled "Searchlng for Memory and Essays by principals of the Video Archive were published in Justice: The Holocaust and Apartheid,'?t was co-sponsored by journals such as Stzidies on the Audio- Viszial Testinzotiy o_f Victims OJ' the Yale Law Schools's Orville H. SchellJr. Center for Interna- the Nazi Crirnes ntid Getzocide (Nos. I, 2, and 3), Partisat1 Review tional Human kghts. South African speakers included a repre- (Winter 1998), Rczritan (XIX: 3 , Winter ~ooo),]oz~rr~dcfPsyclio- sentative of the Minister ofJustice of South fica,Justices of the ~tzalysis,and in the books Encyclopedia c2fGetzocide and The Holo- Constitutional Court , Commissioners of the Truth and Recon- calrst ntld History. chation Commission, scholars, human rights workers, and A broadcast on German public radio focused on the Video fomzer victims. Holocaust scholars fiom Canada, Israel, France, Archive and included excerpts from testimonies in English Germany, Belgmm and the United States presented papers. The translated to German, and in German, recorded both at Yale conference program included video testimony excerpts fiom the and in Germany. The ofice of Congressman Patrick J. Fortunoff Video Archive and the Centre for the Study ofVio- Kennedy of Rhodc Island used written testimony excerpts for lence and Reconcdiation in South Afkica, as well as videotape a conference and a poster concerning human rights abuses. excerpts frorn the Eichmam trial and the Truth and Reconcilia- During one of Professor Hartman's visits to Germany and Aus- tion Commission. "Remnants," a dramatic reading based on sur- tria, several newspaper articles about the Video Archive were vivor testimony, was performed by its author Henry Greenspan. published in the Potsdarizer Netzeste Nachriditetl, Berlilz A new program of testimony escerpts was prepared for the Tqesspiegel, and the bulletin Gedeiikdierzst in Vienna.

HONORARY BOARD OF CONSULTANTS Christopher J. Dodd; Saul FriedlBnder; Raul Hilberg; Lawrence L. Langer; Joseph I. Lieberman; Elie Wiesel; Sigi Ziering Reflections

Robert A. Bzivt is the Alexarzder M. Bickel Professoo ofhw at Yale and who also survived the camps, died without having recorded University. He was afi or;ga~iizerofthe 1998 conference "Searchingfor a public testimony. There is also some sense of impropriety Memory andJzstice: Tlze Holocatrst atid Apartheid. " because the task of testimony now falls on Alina, who for so many years resisted speaking of the Holocaust, while her hus- or the past three years, I have taught a law school seminar band sought in vain to find an audience for their story. with James Ponet, the Yale Hillel Rabbi, entitled "The Book As she begins to speak, her memories overwhelm her, and ofJob and Injustice." In considering the relationship between within minutes she has jumped from her childhood in Warsaw God and mankind, Biblical texts-like secular texts on political to 1942,when three-quarters of the population of the Warsaw theory-offer answers to questions about the status of the rela- ghetto, over a quarter of a donJews, were sent to the camps. tionship between Authority and its subjects: questions about the Under the pressure of this catastrophic history, chronology col- justifications for obeying Authority (fear of its awesome, uncon- lapses. Dana Kline, one of the two interviewers, poses a ques- trollable power? respect for its moral legitimacy?), about the tion carefully phrased to avoid dictating the shape of the obligations, if any, owed from Authority to its subjects, about testimony: "Before that happened, and we will spend a lot of the consequences ofbreaches in these obligations for the contin- time talking about that today, could you tell us a little bit more ued relationship between subjects and Authority. Of all Biblical about your family?" In her tone and in her words, Dana Nine texts, the Book ofJob most directly and disturbingly raises these lets the witness know that today she can tell her story in her questions. This text, moreover, presents these questions with own way, in her own time, that the interviewers will be guided special power because it is not an abstract philosophic disquisi- by Alina's sense ofwhat matters. But at the same time the ques- tion on theodicy but the lament and complaint of a recognizable tion relieves the pressure of the moment. It asks Nina to listen (if unusually eloquent) human being. Reading this text, we hear to herselc it gives her the choice to rewind or fast forward, to Job struggling to make sense, to find solace, and to endure the slow down or speed up the pace of her story. Above all, it bears terrible injustice inflicted on him and his fandy. witness to the interviewers' commitment to patience. This The Holocaust raises the same abstract questions with the commitment is crucial not only because anything less might lead same disturbing force. The intentional extermination by a dem- the witness to yield to an interviewer's spoken or unspoken sug- ocratically elected government of a group among its own citi- gestions or expectations, but because the interviewers will be zenry is as deep a betrayal of the supposed moral structure of our first guides in understanding how to listen to this testimony, the relationship between recognized Authority and its subjects this voice, this history. Through their questions and reactions, as God's inexplicable, clearly unjust agreement with Satan to they embody the mandate of the Fortunoff Video Archive: inflict torture on Job and assassinate his children. The video- "The interview belongs to the witness" (Joanne Rudof). It is taped testi~nonyof Holocaust survivors bring these questions this mandate-this responsibility-that allows Alina to speak in into focus-gives them a human face-even more vividly than the face oftraumatic memories that threaten to return her to the Job's appearance in the Biblical text. In the final weeks of the site of disaster, that allows her to testifjr to a history perforated seminar, we view the testimony of Leon S., who speaks of the with silences, with betrayals, with collapse. And perhaps most comfort available to him &om hs persistent religious faith, and crucially, it is this mandate that has allowed the Archive to of other sun7ivors who subsequently testified in war crimes become a place where not only cold ficts are recorded, but trials and had diffkring attitudes about these formal efforts where another history is told-the history of the impact of the toward accountability. In this witness our students find them- Holocaust on memory, on community, on the survivor. selves drawn-with a depth and personal urgency beyond the On every level of its practice, the Archive insists that the reach of any abstract classroon~discussion-into confi-ontntion history of the Holocaust cannot be transmitted without taking with ultimate questions about the origins of injustice and the into account the history of its aftermath, the history of survival. possibhty of restorative justice. And it insists that this history involves not only the survivors, but also we who attempt to hear the survivors' testimony, and who, in so doing, become responsible for "the future of memory" (to recall the title of one of the Archive's important conferences). It was for this reason that the Archive and its les- sons were central to me as I worked with Aha on the pub-

lished version of her testimony, No Cotnmolz Place: The , Holocazzst Testinzony cfAlitla Bacall-Zwirn. And it is for this reason that the Archwe will continue to be a crucial site in the nl 2 I, 1993. It is fift)' years ago this month that the last unending attempt to learn not only the facts, but which facts survivors of the Warsaw ghetto were sent to the camps and matter, and why. Alina is in New Haven with her daughter, Sophia, to tell her stor).. Weeks of amious waiting have led up to these two hours, and before that yexs of uncertainty about whether this story Lkwreme L. Larger is Emeritus Projessor ofEnglish at Simmons Col- would ever be recorded. There is some agony in the fact that lege. Among his books are Holocaust Testimonies: The Ruins of Alina's first husband, whom she married in the Warsaw ghetto Memory, Admitting the Holocaust: Collected Essays, The Game Continues: Chess in the Art of Samuel Bak, Landscapes the Holocaust-abused their authority to organize and execute ofJewish Experience and Preempting the Holocaust. He has been their criminal intentions. But it is equally imperative to gain a listening to survivors and witnessesfor more thanJifteen years, both on sense of how such misuse of power inflicted on victims a daily videotape and in television stt~diosat Yale and in Massachiuetts. ordeal that is not recorded in reports or official communications. Any nuanced view of the extermination of European Jewly recurrent wony of audiences who attend lectures on must include a portrayal of how the victimized experienced Holocaust themes and raise questions afterwards is what wd.l their persecution. If a careful study of the routing of the trains happen to our study of the subject when the last Holocaust sur- carrying their cargo to the death camps, of their dates of depar- vivor dies. Many believe the time is nearly upon us, though in ture and times of arrival, provides us with crucial evidence about fact that moment lies several decades in the hture. But this is a the unfolding and implementation of the lulling process, testi- minor mistake. The deeper misconception behind this concern is mony from those who were forced to make that unholy journey that hstorical inquiry relies on the survival of those who experi- hrnishes equally vital details about the process ofbeing lulled. enced the events being investigated. mlat follows from this sup- Historians have granted a kind of immortality to certain key position is the fear-and no one should belittle it-that after the documents that enlighten us about progress toward a "Final last survivor of Auschwitz and places like it has died, we will have Solution" of the Jewish question: the minutes of the Wannsee lost our access to the horrors of the camps and to the ordeal of Conference; the Jaeger report (enumerating executions by Ein- those who outlived them, to say nothing of those who did not. satzkommando 3 afier the invasion of the Soviet Union); the It is a legtimate anxiety, but a misguided one. I still recall Korherr report (a survey of victim deaths by Hirnmler's statisti- the day many years ago when I read in local news reports that cian); the Broad report (written by former ss guard Pery Broad the last American Civil War veteran had died. But it never in British captivity after the war about the gassings in occurred to me then-or to anyone who reported the detail, as Auschwitz); even the self-serving autobiography of former far as I know-that history had suffered a fatal blow. Civil War Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Hoess, written in prison studies continued undiminished after that final loss, and indeed before his execution. All have been authored by men who more books have been written in English about Abraham Lin- enjoyed power under the Nazi regme. Used judiciously, they coln than about any other world figure. Why is it that no one enhance our understanding of the German program of mass expects or requires the living presence of parties to other his- murder. But exactly the same can be said about the testimonies torical moments in order to grasp their importance, while so of those who were lucky enough to have escaped that doom. many express apprehensions about irrevocable forfeit when we Granting their voices an equivalent immortahty should not be raise the issue of Holocaust memory? seen as a sentimental homage to a lund of mystical suffering, but One answer is that many people genuinely believe that the as a necessary gesture to history. Their spoken record, used most reliable trustees to the truth of the Holocaust are those judiciously, extends and sometimes qualifies the written one, in who endured it. This is far from a frivolous claim. The depth ways that no other source can supply. Once ths is accepted as and scope of Holocaust atrocity, the particulars of the cruelty, axiomatic truth, no one wdl have to worry about what may are more than most imaginations can manage. After the war, a happen after the last Holocaust survivor dies. majority of those who were forced to confront these minutiae greeted them with doubt or disbelief, then filed them in the archive of amnesia. The main role of those who outlived the I~gridAtztalova is the Director $the Milan Simetka Fou~tdationiil Holocaust is that they represent echoes of probability; their Bratislava, Slot~akia.She is proymm rtzarznger cfour ajtjTliate project voices remind us that they witnessed what our minds are loath am! is presently videotaping the accozmts ofRorna strwivon. to imagine. They invite us to listen to their testimonies until we pierce the surface of their stories and hear the discords beneath. he Komanies have lived on the territory of the present But the impact of their narratives no longer requires their living Slovalua for almost eight centuries. The non-agrarian char- presence. Today we have not only hundreds of written mem- acter of the community prevented their integration with the oirs documenting their experience, but also thousands of video- majority ethnic group. In 1918 Slovakia became a part of the taped accounts that are timeless records not subject to mortal Czechoslovak Republic whch was a democratic state. decay. If Boris Pasternak was correct when he defined inmor- The establishment of the Slovak State on March 14, 1939, as tality in his novel Doctor Zhivago as "you in others," then the a satellite state of Nazi Germany marked the end of pluralistic stories of those who returned from the Holocaust are deathless democracy and the begnning of the totalitarian, fascist govern- -provided they reach a living audience ment. Antisemitic laws impacted all Sg,ooo Jews, while the Thus the problem is not what will happen to Holocaust Romanies were divided into two categories. Some general reg- memory once the last survivor has died, but what will happen to ulations (e.g. exclusion from armed military selvice) affected all survivor testimonies if they are ignored. Left to languish unas- ~oo,oooRomanies, 37,000 of whom were defined in June 1940 similated in archives, they nlight as well not exist. They contain as Gypsy. TIVO types of forced labor institutions were estab- an urgent plea to historians and readers to redefine traditional lished: labor centers for Jews and work segments for social mis- notions of how history is written or read. Unquestionably it is fits, as Gypsies without work were classified. In Novernber essential to know how those in power used or-in the case of 1944 some labor regiments were confined to camps. Due to Reflections cor~tirlircd inadequate food and sanitary installations, a typhus epidemic tion. And now I am askmg why did they not give me that bag? I occurred which was followed by a mass killing of sick prisoners. explained them in detail, that I remembered it fiom my child- Romanies outside the labor regiments were subject to regula- hood. They did not gve me back the bag, they wrote me a letter tions restraining their freedom of movement. saying that they do not know anything about any bag. But they After the defeat of the Slovak National Uprising, from found it, I know, because my mother was asked to come to the autumn 1944 to spring rg45, the regme came under the direct exhumation, whether she could recognize her husband. And control of the German occupation forces. Assisted by local col- from what my mother said, I remember, they found there a white laborators, it completed the so-called "solution to the Jewish jacket and a vest and my mother saw there was a rotten skeleton question." The remaining Slovak Jews were deported. In sev- and the rest of my father's clothes in the grave. At the exhuma- eral places inhabitants of Roma settlements were murdered in tion. So ths was the result. I would never have gone to the Jewish mass kikngs by special ss units. From the regions of southern cemetery. Not far &.omPolana there is a tombstone sayng some- and southeastern Slovakia (at that time annexed to Hungary), thing else, but I do not believe it. I believe one thng-that it was Romanies were deported, mostly to Dachau. at the Jewish cemetery in Zvolen, where they killed the Roma- The research project of the Milan Simezka Foundation nies kom Dhbravy and Bzovce. At that Jewish cemetery it was. focusing on the Roma Holocaust addresses many previously unanswered questions. Above all, it supplements the strictly fac- tual aspects of the anti-Roma decrees and regulations with the Robevt Kraj? is Chair ofthe Psychology Department at Otterbein Col- individual stories of the survivors, thus "unvelling" the previ- lege in Columbus, Ohio. He has been visiting the Video Archive since ously unrecognized Roma Holocaust to the Slovak public in 1993 viewing testimoniesfor his work on memory. He recently com- the hope that many of the present problems of the Roma com- pleted a book based on his research. munity can be addressed. I study oral testimony of those who lived through the Holocaust, I become increasingly aware of how much Thefollozuirg is a translated excerpt ofotze ofthe Roma survivors more there is to know. At the same time, my peripheral vision videotaped by dze Milan Sime?ka Foiindatiotl. ofworld events tells me that I am not alone. Recent reports in leadingjournals and newspapers continue to teach the informed JBn K. public how much there is to learn. will tell you a story, a story about what I learned after a long Consider just the past three years. In February of 1997, the time when my father had been long dead. Untd now I do not Secretary of State of the United States found out that she is the know, where he is buried. I only guess it. It is a pity that I do not grandchild ofJews who perished in the Holocaust. In the spring know it. They took them, the Romanies, &.omDetva, they went of that year, the notorious Fascist group, the Ustashe, re- on foot above the Hrohy hills, they followed the path up to emerged as a political force in Croatia. That summer Swiss Zvolen. They were not only Romanies fi-om Dfibravy, but also banks acknowledged that they hold tens of donsof dollars fiom Bzov. In the same number, I think twenty-two and here in belonging to European Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. Dubravy they are seventeen. It is just my rough guess. So, they An initial list of dormant Swiss bank accounts was first pub- took those Romanies from Bzovy and fiom D6bravy too. They lished in July of 1997, more than fifty-two years after the end of were heading to the castle in Zvolen. Not far from the Zvolen World War 11. That same month an Italian mihtary court con- castle there was a bridge, which had been blown up during the victed two Nazi officers, Erich Priebke and Karl Hass, for their Uprising, I knew the bridge, when I used to go to the partisans. role in a massacre of more than 300 people more than fifty years And then the Germans made the Romanies repair the bridge. earlier. News stories dealing with the aftermath of the Holo- They worked there, repaired the wooden beams, etc. It was early caust from 1998 and 1999 are equally extensive. morning, here I have some notes. A grave-digger &om Zvolen The video testimony of Robert K., who lived through the witnessed to have heard loud shooting at theJewish cemetery Holocaust as a young child, explains: "Once in a while I hear early morning at four. And weeping. Terrible weeping. This someone say, 'Aren't you a little obsessed with the Holocaust?' means they forced them to dig their own graves and dier ths they And my response to that is, 'I think the Holocaust is obsessed shot them dead by mache-fire. And so my belief that my father with us. That the stories follow you, no matter what.' " Another had &ed in KrernniZka, on Nemecki, was not confirmed. The witness, Isabella L., says, "For those who think that it happened Romanies &omD6braxy mere murdered straight at the Jewish long ago, it happened yesterday," referring not only to the cemetev in Zvolen. They found one bag and a pipe in it. I have painful vividness of Holocaust memory, but to real events in her not succeeded to get the pipe back fiom the museum. I have tried own life. In January of 1945, Isabella and three of her sisters several times, wrote letters.. . I know, my uncle, who used to escaped their captors during a death march &om Auschwitz. In work as a smith in Zelobudza, had such a bag. And he always had the confusion that followed, their oldest sister became separated that pipe and a tobacco-bag with him. The tobacco-bag was dec- from them, and they never saw her again. Years later, Isabella orated with straps. It lvas a leather-bag and he always had food met one of the women who had helped her at Auschwitz and and that pipe and the tobacco-bag in it. And this particular bag only then learned of her sister's death in Bergen-Belsen. "Thirty was found at theJewish cemetery. It was found at the exhuma- years later, I found out what happened, what really happened to my sister," Isabella says. "Not thrty, it must have been more between being praised and being patronized. I chose praised. I than that, thirty-five or more years. So it happened yesterday." was privileged to be working for public broadcasting in those What is not so apparent from the many news reports is that days and enormously proud of the work we did in program in addition to shaping the contours of political history, each acquisitions. We had passion for good ideas and good story- reported event connects duectly to the lives of those who sur- telling. We had money to buy programs and we spent it well. vived the Holocaust-and to their families. Listening to oral tes- Over ten years we acquired more than I SO hours of docu- timony reminds us that the stories underlying the news reports mentaries and dramas about the Nazi era and the Holocaust. are stories of individual lives. From Miriam Abramovitz' deeply moving personal narrative, The great value of oral testimony is that it communicates As lfIt Were Yesterday, to Rainer Werner Fassbinder's elegant the events of the Holocaust directly and personally, unedited series Berlin Alexandetplatx, we were determined to give expres- and unstructured. Witnesses are not actors; their stories are not sion to as many voices as possible. scripted. Witnesses speak from memory, and in many cases, the Nothing I looked at over the years prepared me for the pro- interview is the first time for extended recall. After viewing just found experience I had working on Witness: Voicesjom the a few cases, observers can detect the distinctive strengths of oral Holocaust. Edith P., Martin S., Renee H., Helen K., Joseph K., testimony: thoughts, emotions, and personal events in vivid simply took my breath away. Listening to their testimonies, I detail, information that cannot be gathered from documents or felt I was hearing about the Holocaust for the first time. Speak- represented in the broad strokes of statistics or even depicted in ing straight to camera, unprompted, spontaneous and wholly frlms. Oral testimony gives a face and a voice to individuals uncensored, their voices came fi-om unimaginable depths. who otherwise would not be seen or heard, providing what Given the selective and manipulative nature of filmmaking, it Giampiero Carocci calls "little history.?' was hard to imagine how we could preserve their integrity and When critiquing oral testimony, some may question the at the same time make a film. representativeness of the witnesses. Are those who give testi- One thng was clear to me-as Executive Producer of Wit- mony different? Are they more obsessed, more articulate, more ness I had a tremendous responsibihty to get it right. talkative, less likely to have betrayed others, better able to I sought advice from two friends-one a brilliant scholar of remember events? The simple answer is: No. Paradoxically, the the Holocaust and son of surviving victims, the other an Fortunoff Video Archive contains oral testimony fiom those exceptionally gifted feature film editor and narrative story- who did not give testimony. A person who decides, at long last, teller. I screened several favorite fhsand some new ones. I to give testimony for the first time in 1998 may not have talked read Lawrence Langer's remarkable book Holocaust Testimonies at length about the Holocaust for more than 50 years. Many and later talked with him. Finally, Langer's simple reference to witnesses are reluctant historians, resisting the gving of testi- Holocaust testimonies as "human documents rather than mony until many years after the events. merely historical ones" expressed the essence of our challenge. In the testimonies I have studied, people came from nine Rather than a comprehensive hstory, it was important that different European countries, originally speaking ten dfierent Witness be a chronicle of human experience within the historic languages, ranging in age when World War I1 started from context. Individual voices would comprise the building blocks infancy to forty-three, rangmg in age when gving testimony of the frlm. Together they would tell a complete and undimin- fiom forty to ninety-five. They varied in economic back- ished story. No voice would be taken out of context or used to ground, level of education, religousness, language, and culture. shock, particularly when describing the horrific moments so Oral testimony can serve as a type of historical document, but tempting to filmmakers. We would not attempt to soften the its extraordinary strength is in transforming hstorical facts into edges with editorial and/or editing co~ztrivances.We would compelhng narratives. Through carefd study of Holocaust testi- honor the purity and power of the storyteller. monies, we can view one individual in relation to other individu- Months afier Witness was finished I read Charlotte Delbo's als, and we can begn to understand both the personal tragedies extraordinary memoir, Auschwitx and After. In "Poupette," a and the enormity of the collective atrocity. In this way, oral testi- section of The Meastrre ofour Days, she writes: mony integrates psychology and hstory: the study of the individ- ual and patterns of the past. Ultimately, oral testimonies avdable Step out of history in archives wdl communicate the events of the Holocaust so that to enter life the detailed reality of the horrors will not transmognfjr into myth. just try that all of you you'll get it then.

Marion Lear Swaybill is an Enzmy award-winningprod~rcerandpro- I hope when people see Witness: Voicesjorn the Holoc~ust, duction executive. From 1981 to iggl she was Divector ofAcquisitions Delbo rings true-that by honoring our storytellers, we have and Co-Productions at WNET/~~in New York, where she yro- enabled the viewer to "enter life" and "get it." grammed over 150 hours ofHolocaust related3lms.

had a boss in the mid-80s who regarded me as WNET'S Ulrich Baer is Assistant PrOfessor of Gennarz Liferature at New York "guardian ofJewish culture." I acknowledged the fine line University. He is editor ofNiemand zeugt her den Zeugen: Erin- Reflections curltirmeri nerungskultur und historische Verantwortung nach der Shoah understand what I had just heard. Once I had left the Archive (Nobody Bears Witnessfor the Witness: Memorial Culture and His- and would encounter a fellow student or friend, I usually omit- torical Responsibility After the Shoah) published in Frankfurt by ted mentioning how I had spent the last few hours. How could Sulzrka~zp.Projessor Baev is ajequent contributor to the Frankfurter I convey to them, who had just been "outside," what I had just Allgemeine Zeitung, Gerrnany's largest daily paper. see11 and heard without being inadequate to either the testi- mony or the accidentally encountered person? Over the course have been able to learn from survivor testimonies at Yale in of several years, however, I became gradually aware of how three capacities: as a PH-D. student in Comparative Literature important and quasi-therapeutic a human context, a group, a when I translated German and French testimonies, as a possibility of sharing these isolating stories was for me. At con- researcher when writing the introduction to an edited collec- ceivably ill-suited social occasions (for what occasion would tion of essays on testimony published in Germany by Suhrkamp have been an appropriate context to discuss testimonies besides Verlag, and as a professor at NYU in an undergraduate class, the Archive or the classroom), I found myself overwhelmed "Representations of the Holocaust," and a graduate seminar, with the stories to which I had become a secondary witness, "Poetics of Witnessing." My lasting sense from this involve- and which I had carried with me without yet imparting them ment is one of profound incompletion. Reflecting back on to anyone. I do mean that I "found myself' in this position: I these experiences, I have a sense of having been privy to stories had the distinct need to tell someone about what I had seen and and accounts of suffering to which I have not been able to heard over the last few months, as if these stories had now respond adequately. On a purely professional and intellectual become ready to be shared. level as teacher, writer, or researcher, I feel reasonably confi- While studying at Yale, I translated a number of Gypsy sur- dent that in my reliance on testimonies I achieved the intended vivors' testimonies recorded in Austria. Several survivors were results. I could counter the sense of anonymity one sometimes wary about depositing their testimonies in a publicly accessible encounters in fact-based historical accounts of the catastrophe, archive, fearing retribution by Neo-Nazis today. Others enipha- and demonstrate to my students how the truth of history and sized that they had never spoken to anyone about their experi- the truth of personal experience are neither mutually exclusive ences, and I sensed that I had become the sole addressee for these nor always coincide. On an emotional level, however, I feel stories. Although I was aware that my experience listening to that every time I used a testimony in writing, teaching, or testimonies was not unique, I felt that it had become my respon- research, I was left with a further obligation to respond and to sibility to remember these stories. This realization seemed to become a recipient and addressee of the testimony beyond engulf me quite suddenly whenever a mildly interested or sym- whatever "use" I made of the testimony in my work. I have pathetic listener would ask what I was doing at Yale. I would learned how a Holocaust survivor's testimony, in an unsettling surprise myself with the amount of detailed information I had way, might exceed not only the specificity of the survivor-by retained and with my own sharing of these stories with a "third becoming more significant than a personal memory would- party" as if these re-tellings would constitute a somewhat ade- but might also become part of the listener's self-understanding: quate response to stories of irrecuperable loss. how one is traversed and touched, against one's will and In order to prevent my students from being overburdened beyond one's deliberate or unwitting efforts to master this story, by the testimonies, I introduced them into my classroom only by the testimony. dter a climate had been established. In my teaching experience, When I introduced taped testimonies into the classroom, I video testimonies have a startling effect of immediacy in a semi- had already discussed Lawrence Langer's Holocarist Testimonies nar focused primarily on textual sources. There was usually an and several essays on the specific challenges posed by listening initial silence followed by verbal expressions of being disturbed to survivors. As the semester advanced, we read and discussed or even shocked. Yet since the students knew we were partici- history books, fictional narratives, and written survivor pants in the effort to examine the possibilities of representing accounts. I arranged my reading lists in order to create an the Holocaust or the specific challenges of testi~nony,they were atmosphere where details about the Holocaust could be dis- able to discuss the testimonies, including their own responses of cussed without either numbing the students or downplaying speechlessness, in the class. the gravity of the catastrophe for the sake of a more objective, I schedule a screening of testimonies to be followed inune- less emotionally encumbered grasp of the material. My efforts diately by a relatively non-directed discussion of the students' to create a context for discussion before I screened the first immediate responses. When the class reconvenes the same videos in the classroom resulted from my own ongoing experi- week, I make general observations about the testimonies we ences in viewing testimonies. saw together, and initiate a discussion of the questions raised by As a translator, sitting in fiont of a monitor which links me the testimonies, hoping to alleviate the sense of receiving a to a world utterly alien to me via the headphone cables, often story for which there is no proper context in which to share it side-by-side with one or two other silent listeners, I had with others, and to pass it on. remembered that listening to testimonies felt profoundly isolat- Much of my teaching time dealing with the video testi- ing. When I volunteered at the Fortunoff Archive, I often tried monies is spent examining the literal and the symbolic future of to chat at least briefly with Joanne Rudof or Debra Bush before the archives; the students are challenged to consider the fate leaving, since I had the impression that only they could possibly cotztinued on page 11 rom the Archivist's

Recently everyone has done a great deal of "looking backv as have yet to be cataloged. We will continue to make progress in we entered a new century and a new millennium. This has pro- this work after expiration of the grant funding. vided both an opportunity and a challenge to reflect on the Our communications have changed with the expansion of events of the twentieth century. It has also increased awareness email and the Internet. Our website generates a large amount of of the passing of generations, particularly those who lived email and we now receive many more inquiries via email than through the World Wars. This once again emphasizes the via telephone or conventional mail. More than zoo websites importance of the work of the Video Archive. feature links to ours. "Searching for Memory and Justice," our 1998 Fifteenth L Since 1996, I have been working with Joshua Greene and Anniversary conference offered a unique opportunity for exam- Shim Kumar to produce a documentary comprised of excerpts ining and discussing the impact and memory of two different from nineteen testimonies, illustrated by documentary footage, b traumatic histories. There was no intent or effort to make com- photographs, and documents. Witness: Voicesfrom the Holocaust, parisons; the goal was to learn from each other. By the end of the will be nationally broadcast by PBS on Yom Hashoah, May I at conference, the participants developed a sense of community and 10 PM EST. Connecticut Public Television is the presenting sta- of learning together. The personal accounts of torture and death tion. Many screenings have been held and if anyone is interested under apartheid of Pius Langa, Albie Sachs, Mbasa Mxenge and in holding such a local event, contact the Video Archive. The those on the videotapes were a forceful reminder that we have a Free Press has just published a book of the same title containing great deal to learn from all victims of oppressive governments additional excerpts from those in the documentary and nine that legally inflict such suffering upon their own citizens. other witnesses. Again, I want to point out that these projects Lawrence Langer writes about the importance of our collec- could not have been completed ifwe had not had the means to tion as the witnesses pass from the scene. I would like to identi@ appropriate topics in the witness accounts using our remember here one survivor whose death in 1996 was of par- databases. One aspect of this project was soliciting personal pho- ticular import to the Video Archive, William Rosenberg. tographs and documents from those whose testimonies are Willy, as we affectionately knew him, was a driving force excerpted in Witness. Looking at these precious remnants-the behind the Holocaust Survivors Film Project. Mter the project faces ofboys and their teacher in a cheder, formal portraits of came to Yale, he remained an important participant. He was parents, children, and gsandparents in their best dress-was yet president of the New Haven survivors group and we could another jan-ing reminder of all that was lost. always count on him for support. He lives on in our memoly I have derived tremendous personal satisfaction assisting and his story lives on as well in his testimony. many people who visit the Video Archive. Many undergradu- During my more than fifteen years at the Video Archive, I ate students, &om Yale and elsewhere, arrive with preconceived have been continually surprised by the variety of our visitors and notions which are often not only naive, but simply unin- the expansive range of their research topics. Our youngest view- formed, based largely on popular myths about the Holocaust. I ers were in the fifth gsade. Their curiosity and fervor were just as teach them how to use the databases to choose testimonies rele- great as that of many senior scl~olars.This year we received an vant to their topics. I also assist them in using the bibliographic application for authorization to publish testimony excerpts from databases to locate print resources for their work. While that a group of middle school students that was producing a radio task is somewhat mechanical (although intuition and knowl- show for broadcast throughout their school system. In addition edge are vital for successful searches), the results are not. Once to teachers, students, and academics, our visitors have included students have viewed witness testimonies, they begin to under- performance musicians, music composers, artists, architects, stand the reality of life in ghettos and camps, in hiding, and poets, novelists, children's writers, attorneys, physicians, phar- with the partisans. They often discard fosmer beliefs. They arc macologists, dramaturges, playwsigl~ts,actors, documentarians, sadder but wiser; their papers reflect this metamorphosis. filmmakers, legislators, and reporters, all of whom were working I was privileged to be with our affiliate project in Bratislava, on topics stimulated by their professional interests. the Milan Sirnezka Foundation, at a celebration of the publica- Among the publications whch recently incorporated materi- tion of Peter Salner's book based on their testimonies. It was als fi-om our collection are Christopher R. Browning's forth- attended by many survivors. 111 Slovakia, so recently dominated coming Nazi Policy,Jewish Labor, Gemzan Killers (tentative title); by the fosmer Soviet Union where the telling of histosy served Judah Cohen's essay, "Disembodied Music: The Orchestra in political ends rather than a search for truth, our project may Auschwitz," included in a University of Mississippi Press book have been the first public recognition of their suffering as Jews. edited by Judith S. Neulander; S. Laan Kremer's Wot~ten'sHob- I quickly realized how my presence as a representative of the caust Writiq:Meurzory and Imagirzatiorz; Nan Levine's Fzgitives $ Fortunoff Video Archive and of Yale reinforced their sense of the Forest; and Vera Schwarcz's Bridge across Brokefl Time: Chime validation. I was embarrassed by their effusive gsatitude since I arldJewish Cdtttyal Mcmory. Scores of scholars have included testi- felt they had given so much to our project. However, I appre- mony excerpts in papers delivered at academic conferences. ciated what had been accomplished beyond the addition of Ths research is possible only if there is intellectual access to valuable testinlonies to our collection, and on a personal level, the testimonies. Almost 2,500 testimonies have been cataloged how their lives were brightened a bit knowing that in the to date. A grant from Steven Spielberg's Righteous Persons United States, at Yale, scholars and students would hear their Foundation enabled us to significantly increase the pace of the stories now and for generations to come. cataloging during the last five years. Some 1,500 testimonies joame Wei~erRtdof Contributions conti~zued

Harold Hoder Rothman-Goodman Management Holocaust Survivors Fellowship Corp. of Greater New Haven in memory David Sagmor of Sonia Frenkel Harvey Samson Sidney and Teddy Hurwitz Sands Brothers & Co., Ltd. I. Waldbaum Family Foundation Stanley Schecter Dr. Edward Jutkowitz Stanley Scholsohn Kurt and Helen Katz Lucille Schwartz Kensington Operating Corp. Miriam and Herbert Setlow Martin and Dana Kline Ronald and Phyllis Shaw Ruth and Harvey Koizim Joan Siege1 Mrs. Jack Konowitz Harry and Elaine Silberglait Joseph I.. Kornwasser Perry Sue Silverstein Bernard R. and Carol Kossar Edward and Bai-bara Simpson William "Willy " Roserzbeg with Elie Wiesel Foundation Ellen Sinreich at Yale, Novembeu 23, 1992 Howard C. Kotkin Mr. & Mrs. Morris Starr Meyer Icravitz Sterling & Sterling, Inc. Irving and Shirley Kroopnick George Szabad FORTUNOFF VIDEO ARCHIVE Joseph Labov and Shirlee Elston United Federation of Teachers FOR HOLOCAUST TESTIMONIES Dori Laub United Jewish ~~~e'al/~ederationof Evelyn H. Lauder Westport-Weston-Wilton-Nonvalk LIBRARY ADVISOR Lederer Foundation Richard V. Szary Ed Lee and Jean Campe Foundation Mr. and Mrs. Herman Levin Reflections FACULTY ADVISOR Morsis M. Levine Foundation, Paul co~ztintdedfvoulzpage 8 Geoffrey H. Hartinan Goodwin, Chairman Leonard S. Liebrnan ey were INTERVIEWER TRAINING Ellie and Martin Lifton not viewing these tapes and, by exten- Dr. Dori Laub Mac Andrews & Forbes Group, Inc. sion, if nobody carries out research. Dana L. Kline Michele and Anthony Marmnon Their own viewing and studying of sur- Margulies, Wind, Herrington & Knopf vivor testimonies thus becomes part of STAFF McMillan, Rather, Bennett the archives' project and destination, and Debra Bush & Rigano, PC their obligation - now from within the Archive Assistant Louis Micheels testimonies' appeal for a receptive listener Brandon Pustejovsky Millenium Foundation Tmst - is hsed with a reflection on how and h/fmager NAB Construction what they might learn from viewing Joanne W.Rudof Nelson & Pope, LLP these testimonies. One of the objectives Archivist The New York Times of the class is to realize that some wit- Hariy R. Newnian nesses, like the Gypsy survivors whose FOUNDERS OF Herbert Newman testimonies I translated, are spealung into THE VIDEO ARCHIVE George Novak the camera as if it were the only and ter- FOR HOLOCAUST TESTIMONIES Adrienne O'Brien and David Salten ribly insufficient addressee. As viewers, Geoffrey H. Hartman Celine Palatsky the students are made aware of how the Dr. Doli Laub Abraham Pasternak initially neutral objectives of studying William Rosenberg Ben Pepper hstory 'from below,' of supplementing Laurel F. Vlock Barbara and Frank Perry written history with oral sources, and of Price Charities attaching a face to the anonymous masses Jay and Sharon Raddock yield to the moral obligation to reflect on Rivkin, Radler & Kremer the way in which this history is linked to Felice and Gil Robinov them as viewers in the present. Rockland Lease Funding Corp. Miriam Feist Rosengart Sonia Rosenholtz Rosenman & Colin, LLP Dorothy Rosensweig Arnold S. Ross AN 86-MINUTEFILM (1999)

COMING MAY I, 2000 @ IO:00 PM EST ON PBS

Gold Medal FLAGSTAFF INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Best Documentary NASSAU INDEPENDENT CINEMA EXPO

Best Social Documentary NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT FILM & VIDEO FESTIVAL

Bronze Medal NATIONAL EDUCATIONAL MEDIA NETWORK

Top Honors HOUSTON WORLDFEST INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

Those interested in learning more about the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies can visit our website at mvw.library.yale.edu/testimonies or contact us at [email protected], or P.O. Box 208240, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8240 (Tel. 203-432-1 879). Gifts or pledges payable to Yale University are tax deductible and may be sent to the Fortunoff Video Archive.

Fortunofi-Video Archive fbr Holocaust Tcstimonics Non-Profit Org. Sterling Memorial Library, Room 33 I c U.S. Postage Yale University PAID P.O. Box 208240 Permit No. 526 New Haven, Connecticut 06520-8240 New Haven, CT